McAuliffe offers olive branch to GOP

RICHMOND, Va. — Terry McAuliffe, the legendary Democratic fundraiser and political fixer, had a message for Republicans during his rain-drenched inauguration Saturday as Virginia’s governor: Let’s make a deal.

With a Republican-controlled General Assembly and control of the state Senate up for grabs in two contested special elections, McAuliffe struck a conciliatory tone following a bitter campaign, praising outgoing Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell, and even quoting Thomas Jefferson in calling for compromise on subjects such as Medicaid expansion.

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“The impediments to consensus are well known: ideology, personal political ambition, partisanship or score-settling,” the 56-year-old said as longtime allies Bill and Hillary Clinton looked on. “No one who has served as an elected official has looked back and wished they had been more rigid, more ideological or more partisan.

“Like four years ago, the skeptics are predicting divided government driven to gridlock by partisanship,” McAuliffe said. “Virginia, together, we will prove them wrong again.”

Still, the challenges are very real, and McAuliffe, who barely won his race, may have little room to maneuver. The 16-minute speech made clear the extent to which he understands that his success depends on crossover Republican support.

His first big test comes in trying to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, something he has said is one of his top priorities. But many Republicans remain strongly opposed and the problems with the Obamacare rollout have only stiffened the resistance.

Recognizing this, the state’s 72nd governor argued in his speech that the business community and health care executives want Virginia to take federal money that’s on the table. Nonetheless, he signaled he was open to getting as much as he can get from the Republican legislature.

“With a stronger health care system in Virginia as our objective,” he said, “I will work with the legislature to build on the Medicaid reforms that the General Assembly has already achieved, and to put Virginians’ own tax dollars to work keeping families healthy and creating jobs here in the Commonwealth.”

It was the smallest turnout for an inauguration in memory, and the dreary weather was a big factor — the event almost was moved inside due to thunder.

Another apparent reason for the relatively small crowd was that McAuliffe, a native of Syracuse, New York, lacks deep ties to Richmond. A huge swath of his supporters freely admitted to pollsters last year that they were voting primarily against his Republican opponent, Ken Cuccinelli.

The pair ran bitter campaigns against each other, and, Cuccinelli, the outgoing attorney general, never called to congratulate McAuliffe. McAuliffe won by only 2.5 percent, with a plurality, despite a massive fundraising advantage.

The Clintons, as usual, were an unavoidable presence at the event, though neither spoke and McAuliffe did not refer to them in his speech. But several other of McAuliffe’s friends from decades as a player in national politics also were on hand, from Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) to Jerry Lundergan, the father of Kentucky Senate candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes. Also spotted were Clinton loyalist Huma Abedin, the wife of scandal-scarred New York politician Anthony Weiner, and Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, a potential 2016 presidential candidate.

McAuliffe’s son John, a midshipman at the Naval Academy, led the crowd in the Pledge of Allegiance. As is tradition in the Old Dominion, many of the elected officials wore morning suits with gloves.